For $100 And A 250-word Essay, A General Store Could Be Yours

So you want to own a small business in the bucolic Pocono Mountains, near cascading water falls, national parks and ski resorts?

But then there are the up-front costs, buying the building and the land -- tens of thousands of dollars just for starters.

And, oh yes, don't forget inventory.

Joe and Abigail Curran believe they have the answer.

Just drop them a note -- a C-note, actually, and a 250-word essay and their circa 1860 general store in Bushkill, Pike County, could be yours.

Following the lead of others throughout the nation, the Currans have jumped on the essay-contest bandwagon and hope 10,000 people will pay $100 apiece for a chance to win the Norman Rockwellesque Abby's General Store.

Each essay must begin with: "I would like to own and operate an old-fashioned general store in the Pocono Mountains...."

The best of the lot, as judged by a panel of English professors at East Stroudsburg University, will win the building on a three-quarter-acre parcel, last appraised at $750,000. The general store, with portions dating back more than 130 years, also comes fully stocked.

"It would be as if the winner walked in and we handed them the keys," Joe Curran, 29, said. "It's ready to go."

The roots of such contests date to early last year in New England when 5,000 contestants paid $100 apiece and spun 250 words together at a shot at a Maine bed-and-breakfast.

Bolstered by nationwide media coverage, that contest spurred hundreds of copycats with prizes ranging from a North Carolina furniture store to a Beverly Hills home to houses in Pennsylvania. Faced with a stagnant real estate economy, many businesses and homeowners believe such contests are a plausible alternative to a for-sale sign.

But as the trend grew, its novelty waned. And many recent contest-holders have come up far short of the targeted number of contestants to make the contests work. Locally, couples from Hatfield to Allentown to the Poconos have tried the ploy without success. Thomas Carlson of Hatfield, whose house is the prize in an essay contest, recently extended his deadline a second time, to July, and lowered his fee from $250 to $100. Thus far he has 60 entrants of the 750 he seeks.

The Currans launched their effort in November. Unlike others, they didn't try to sell their property first; they just started right in with the contest. They have since netted between 100 and 200 entrants. But the slow response hasn't left them doubting the idea.

Joe Curran, meanwhile, attributes the failure of other contests to a lack of advertising.

"You have to lay out the cash, and that's very expensive," Curran said, estimating his advertisements in national publications such as Yankee and McCall's magazines have already cost him $15,000.

Those ads just recently began running, and Curran hopes they will trigger entrants from around the nation.

The contest does have a clause in its rules that allows the Currans to extend the April 30 deadline by three 30-day periods. If still short of entrants at that time, the contest could be scrapped altogether and the money -- minus 5 percent to defray advertising costs -- would be returned.

The store is on Route 209, 13 miles north of Stroudsburg, and sells everything from pizza to fishing lures to circular saws.

"It's definitely unique," Joe Curran said. "It's full of local flair from a bygone era."

Curran said his family, which has owned the store for four years, decided to hold the contest so they could focus on other business holdings, which include the Wendy's restaurant in Marshalls Creek.

"This place holds a lot of memories for me. A lot of good memories," Curran said, recalling that he first met his wife there three years ago when he applied for a job as the store's hardware manager.